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# PDF2TXT + Translator — How to use it
This guide assumes you have never run a web page from a folder before. It takes about
two minutes.
## What this program is
PDF2TXT reads the text inside a PDF and gives it to you as plain text you can copy or
save. Everything happens inside your own browser: the PDF is not uploaded to us or to
anyone else. There is no installation, no account and no internet connection needed for
the text extraction itself.
---
## Step 1 — Start the app
A browser will not load the PDF engine from a file you double-click, so start a tiny
local web server first. You only do this once per session.
**On Linux / macOS**
1. Open a Terminal.
2. Type these two lines, pressing Enter after each:
```bash
cd path/to/pdf2txt
python3 -m http.server 8000
```
3. Leave that window open. It must stay running while you use the app.
**On Windows**
1. Install Python 3 from python.org if you do not have it (tick "Add Python to PATH").
2. Open the folder `pdf2txt` in File Explorer.
3. Click the address bar, type `cmd` and press Enter.
4. Type `python -m http.server 8000` and press Enter.
**Then**, in any browser, open:
```
http://localhost:8000/src/index.html
```
You will see a dark page titled **PDF2TXT + Translator** with a **Main** and a
**Config** tab. If the page is blank or text extraction fails, you opened
`src/index.html` by double-clicking instead of through `http://localhost:8000` — go back
to Step 1.
## Step 2 — Load your PDF
- Drag the PDF from your file manager and drop it on the big dashed box, **or** click
the box and pick the file.
- The app shows the file name, the number of pages and the file size.
- Click **Load File**. A progress bar counts the pages while the text is extracted.
- One file at a time. To start over, click **🗑️ New**.
You can also skip the PDF entirely: paste text into **Or paste text directly** and click
**Load Pasted Text**.
## Step 3 — Check and edit the text
The extracted text appears in the editor under **2. Edit & Select Parts**. You can type
in it, fix line breaks, or delete pages you do not want. **Select All**, **Deselect All**
and **⛶ Fullscreen** help with long documents.
## Step 4 — Take the text out
- **Download TXT** saves a file called `extracted.txt`.
- **Copy All** copies everything to the clipboard so you can paste it into Word, Google
Docs, an email, and so on.
Both buttons use whatever is currently in the editor — your edits included.
## Step 5 (optional) — Translate
Translation uses a language model that runs through **Ollama**, and it is entirely
optional. Extraction, editing, copy and download work without it.
1. Install Ollama from ollama.com.
2. In a terminal run: `ollama pull translategemma:latest`
3. Back in the app, open the **Config** tab and set **API Source** to
`Local (localhost:11434)`.
4. Open the **Translate** section. Set **Translation Model** to
`translategemma:latest`.
5. Choose your **Target** language from the 16 offered and press **🔄 Translate**.
Things worth knowing before you translate:
- The package ships with **API Source** set to `Proxied (/ollama)` and **Translation
Model** set to `glm-5.3-flash:cloud`. Both are cloud settings. For an offline run you
must change them as in steps 3 and 4.
- Long documents are sent in 1,500-character pieces, one after another, so a big book
takes a while. Use the pause/stop buttons if needed.
- The **Clean** and **Validate** steps also use a model (`llama3.2:latest` by default). If
you only want a translation, choose the workflow `Translate Only`.
- Machine translation is a draft, not a certified translation. Check names, numbers and
legal wording yourself.
## Limits you should know
- **No OCR.** If the PDF is a scan (a photo of a page), there is no text inside it and
the result will be empty. This tool reads text layers only.
- **No batch mode.** One document per run.
- **No upload.** Because nothing leaves your computer, there is no cloud backup and no
sync between devices.
- **Memory-bound.** Very large PDFs are limited by your browser's memory, not by an
artificial page cap.
- **Layout is flattened.** Columns and tables come out as a stream of text and may need
tidying in the editor.
## Your purchase and the download link
The download link you received from the store is **permanent for that purchase**: you can
open it again later to re-download the same package, with no expiry and no subscription.
Keep the link (or the email containing it) somewhere safe, and keep your own copy of the
`pdf2txt` folder as a backup — it is a plain folder of files, so copying it is enough.
## Licence
MIT © 2026 Akan Goksu Valdes. The PDF engine in `vendor/` is PDF.js, licensed under
Apache-2.0. See `LICENSE` in the package folder.
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